At 84, SUNY Potsdams earthquake man keeps rocking

POTSDAM  Frank A. Revetta has had his ear to the north countrys rocky ground for five decades and despite a recent retirement hes not going to stop.

Mr. Revetta, a SUNY Potsdam geology professor, was awarded the 2012 Distinguished Service Award from the Eastern Section of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers this spring.

I think the main reason I got it is because of the long service I had with them, he said. I had 15 or 16 years as their treasurer or secretary. I also did a lot of papers and presented a lot of research, and I attended all their meetings. They must have thought that since I was retiring from the organization they should recognize me.

In the north country, many colloquially refer to Mr. Revetta as the earthquake man, as his initial interest in seismology made him a prime source whenever the earth shook.

I remember when I first started to record them, wed even feel some of them, he said. They are really nice because they dont cause much damage and theyre good for teaching.

Mr. Revetta says his work goes beyond earthquakes.

Most of my work that Ive done through my life has been making gravity measurements and teaching, he said. I just went into this earthquake thing because I found it interesting.

Over the years, Mr. Revetta and his students took gravity measurements throughout New York and adjacent states to create detailed maps of gravity anomalies, areas where the earths pull increases or decreases.

Gravity anomalies affect the orbits of satellites, so I had to send my results to the Department of Defense because they wanted to know where they were, he said. Theyre related to mineral deposits, and they are very good for making discoveries about geology. They are good for determining the shape of the earth. I know Ive made 15,000 to 20,000 measurements of gravity.

This spring also marked Mr. Revettas retirement, but he is continuing to teach and research full-time at SUNY Potsdam as a professor emeritus.

Mr. Revetta started teaching at the university in 1962. At 84 years old, he has no plans to stop .As long as they need me, as long as they like to have me because I love teaching. It is something that is a good thing to do as you get up in years, he said.

I admit there arent too many people working at 84, but it is good in my case, he said. Lets suppose if you retire you dont do anything, you sit around at home all day and you get bored. If you go to work, you enjoy doing things and keep your mind active.

A natural curiosity and a love of teaching keep him going, according to Mr. Revetta.

I know my happiness is tied in closely with my work, he said. I just had a class this morning, now Im working on a little research project. When I consider both stripes of life, whether to sit idle or to stay active, I am definitely convinced that the best choice for me is to teach.

Mr. Revetta, founder of the Potsdam Seismology Network, also continues to keep tabs on the earthquake activity in the region.

There arent as many earthquakes as there used to be, he said. I remember when I first started to record earthquakes, there were a lot of them, most of them were quite small but frequent. It would be interesting to get a student to graph all the earthquakes weve had in the past 30 or 40 years, Id swear that graph is going down.

Commenting rules:

Stick to the topic of the article/letter/editorial.

When responding to issues raised by other commenters, do not engage in personal attacks or name-calling.

Comments that include profanity/obscenities or are libelous in nature will be removed without warning.

Violators' commenting privileges may be revoked indefinitely. By commenting you agree to our full Terms of Use.